{Ronan’s POV}

‘That's going to be tough.’ I pondered, sitting in my study with the curtains drawn, the fire low in the hearth.

The silence should have been calming, it should have made deciding easy… but it didn’t.

I could not stop seeing Damon’s face. That look when I had stripped him of his title. Hurt, yes, but worse was the acceptance in his eyes, as if he believed he deserved it.

The memory gnawed at me. I pushed back from the desk and stood, restless. My hands curled on the edge of the table, then I swept everything to the ground in one violent motion. Papers scattered, glass shattered,...